Is WSJ’s Blast at Critics Part of the News Corp. PR Plan?

Has The Wall Street Journal shot itself in the foot? It would be interesting to find out just who was responsible for the newspaper's editorial today that railed against News Corp critics. Excerpt below:

"We also trust that readers can see through the commercial and ideological motives of our competitor-critics. The Schadenfreude is so thick you can't cut it with a chainsaw."

Statements like that appear to go against the very apologetic tone the Rupert Murdoch took late last week and into the weekend. On Huffington Post, one of the comments posted about the editorial included: "OMIGOD! Didn't these schmiels at the WSJ get any media training?"

Our sentiments exactly. But, with the risk of thinking too much, could it be possible that WSJ has been anointed the "argumentative" News Corp mouthpiece for the crisis? Or is PR in the U.S. and across the pond just not in sync?